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Local Man Charged for Straw Contributions

June 14, 2013 12:10 AM

Buffalo, UNITED STATES: View of the holding cell 14 November 2006 of the newly painted Dallas County jail in Buffalo, Missouri, with the color scheme of pink with blue teddy bear accents. The Dallas County Detention Center is being repainted a soft shade of pink in an effort to better manage sometimes volatile detainees. Sheriff Mike Rackley said he decided to update the look as part of extensive repairs necessary after inmates set a fire and vandalized the interior in an escape attempt 08 October 2006. AFP PHOTO/Jeff HAYNES (Photo credit should read JEFF HAYNES/AFP/Getty Images)

(Credit: JEFF HAYNES/AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — A man with ties to the businessman at the center of a wide-ranging investigation into D.C. politics has been charged with making straw political donations and plans to plead guilty to a misdemeanor.

His lawyer, Edward MacMahon, said Thursday his client would plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge next week and was cooperating with the investigation. He declined to comment further.

MacMahon confirmed that Calhoun works for an accounting firm formerly known as Thompson, Cobb, Bazilio and Associates, or TCBA. The firm, whose offices federal authorities raided last year as part of the investigation, changed its name after Jeffrey Thompson left and sold his ownership stake. Prosecutors are investigating Thompson on suspicion that he funded a “shadow campaign” for Mayor Vincent Gray.

Thompson has not been charged, and Gray has said he had no knowledge of any illicit funds being used to support his 2010 campaign.

Court papers accuse Calhoun of making straw donations in 2011 to a campaign committee for an unidentified candidate for the House of Representatives. Calhoun “knew that the contributions were, in truth and in fact, being made by Executive A and Company A,” the court papers allege.

Federal election records show Calhoun gave $2,300 that year to Donna Christensen, the Virgin Islands’ delegate to Congress who has generally benefited from Thompson’s largesse.